Julius Caesar (22 page)

Although the dream of a single Gallic state had dissolved, it would be some time before he could be confident that the land was quiet. As for the defeated Vercingetorix, he had to wait for six years in Roman jails until his death after Caesar’s Gallic Triumph in 46. And the Roman soldiers on the vast perimeter around Alesia?

…they knew nothing of the victory till they heard the cries of the men and the lamentations of the women who were in the town, and had from thence seen the Romans at a distance carrying into their camp a great quantity of bucklers, adorned with gold and silver, many breastplates stained with blood, besides cups and tents made in the Gallic fashion. So soon did so vast an army dissolve and vanish like a ghost or dream…

(Plutarch)

The heart of the great revolt had collapsed with the defeat of Vercingetorix and the fall of Alesia, but the embers still smoldered in various parts of Gaul—most noticeably among the Belgae who had contributed little. Caesar, who had gone into winter camp at Bibracte, was soon compelled to take action against the Bituriges and, even though it was the depths of winter, to move in person at the head of two legions and occupy their country. He did it with that rapidity which had the customary effect of taking the enemy completely by surprise. After six weeks of what seems to have been more a manhunt than a campaign, the Bituriges “were brought to accept peace” and the legions could go back to winter quarters. They were rewarded, however, for this disturbance of their routine by what amounted to about half a year’s pay a man.

Early in 51 some of the Belgic states, including the tough Bellovaci, began—too late—to prepare for war, and Caesar was finally compelled to bring six legions against them (he had initially considered four to be enough). So bad at one moment was the situation that the news even got back to Rome that he had suffered a major disaster. But his enemies rejoiced too soon, and in the end Correus, the leader of the Bellovaci, who had been conducting a very intelligent guerrilla campaign, was killed in the fighting. Even with this defeat the resistance to the Romans did not end, other leaders and other tribes continued the struggle—proof enough that the Roman Peace was never desired but only forced upon the inhabitants of the land.

The final act in the great drama occurred in 51. The rebellious Belgae had all surrendered, handed over hostages and paid an immense tribute calculated on the proportion of their previous engagements against Caesar. From the land of the Eburones (devastated yet again) to the area of the Loire and the Treveri in the east, the people were brought back into the Roman allegiance and reminded by the marching legions of Caesar and Labienus, and his other lieutenants, of the consequences of “folly.” In only one place, and that far away in the Dordogne, was there any survival of the spirit of resistance that only a year before had swept through the land like a great fire. In the hill-fortress of Uxellodunum (Puy d’Issolu) a number of Gauls under two distinguished leaders were holding out, waiting for Caesar’s departure and hoping, once he had gone, to raise the revolt again. He determined to make an example of them “so that other cities, following their lead, should not try to regain their liberty…”

The siege and fall of Uxellodunum, told by Hirtius, Caesar’s friend and fellow-author (he completed the
Commentaries
of the Gallic War), is one of the most moving episodes in all the history of great sieges. The fortress-town built on almost solid rock held out throughout a hot summer against all the skill and ingenuity of the Romans, until their engineers finally managed to divert the underground stream that provided Uxellodunum’s interior water supply. Caesar had shown clemency after the fall of Alesia, but now he decided that an example must be made: he would show the other side of the Roman
imperium.
The lives of the inhabitants were spared, but all those who had borne arms against him had their hands cut off. The survivors would wander for the rest of their lives throughout Gaul, living witnesses of the fate of rebels.

One thing that is noticeable about the
Commentaries,
more even than their laconic style, is the shortage of reference to the many other men who made the conquest of this great country possible, although, of course, Labienus, young Crassus, a centurion, and one or two others are mentioned. These were the official accounts of the proconsul (Caesar always refers to himself in the third person), but they must also be seen as the report of a general of immense political ambition who wished to appear in the most favorable light to people in Rome. It was natural enough that Caesar, with his literacy and rhetorical ability (witness the accounts of his speeches), should inevitably show himself in a favorable light and, since he was the commentator, that the actions in which he himself was engaged should have a vivid quality that could hardly be extended to others. But there were a number of commanders—Labienus was an outstanding example—who clearly were extremely fine professionals and who, although their actions are necessarily recorded, fail to command the attention that they should. This may well be the reason why Labienus chose the other side when it came to the civil war.

There can be no doubt at all as to Caesar’s ability, and his place among the great commanders in world history is safe for all time, but the reader of the
Commentaries
should never forget the unknown legionaries and, above all, the centurions who made the victories possible. Caesar found in the legionary system (created by Marius) the ideal instrument for his purpose and honed it to perfection. The skill of the Roman engineers, whether at mining operations, bridge-building, or the construction of assault towers, battering rams and other weapons of war such as the missile-throwing
ballista
, was outstanding. It is evidence of that “superior science” which, as Vercingetorix said, played so large a part in the Roman victories. Something else that must always be borne in mind—when Gauls were starving or short of weapons, the Romans remained supplied. The commissariat, the supply side of the Roman army, was brilliantly organized—from helmets, breastplates, swords and boots, to grain and all other provisions. Even when the conquerors were living off the country, the food available still had to be obtained and distributed.

Able men like Labienus and Balbus, who was Caesar’s personal adjutant for a time, made fortunes out of Gaul, and so too did Mamurra, who replaced him. Mamurra was a knight from Formiae who aroused the envy and hatred of the poet Catullus because he was
nouveau riche
and had at one time stolen the poet’s mistress. He was also reputed to be bisexual, and Catullus in one of his most savage poems accused him and Caesar of having sexual relations, calling them

…the pervert Mamurra and Caesar

…sharing the same vice, this pair of twins

Clever lads at love, sharing the same bed…

There must have been many others like Mamurra who

…squandered the wealth that once

To long-haired Gauls and farthest Britons belonged.

Every war produces its crop of profiteers—invariably able men, and usually hand in glove with politicians.
 

22

Tension and Dissension

IN the year 58 Caesar had justified moving his troops beyond the province of Narbonese Gaul on the grounds of protecting those old friends of Rome, the Aedui. He had been forced by the mass-migration of a Swiss tribe, the Helvetii, to invade areas which had never before been claimed by Rome nor had any ties with the Roman republic. Successive years had steadily increased the territory to which it was now clear that Caesar (in the name of Rome) was laying claim, and by the end of 51 a Roman province had been carved out of Europe that stretched from the Pyrenees in the south to the Alps in the east, to the Rhine in the north and to the Atlantic Ocean in the west. This new province, which he gave to the Roman people, but out of which he sought political power, comprised an area of 200,000 square miles, many different tribes, numerous dialects of the Celtic language, and one basic religion (on the decline) Druidism. The land now lay exhausted after the conquest, a conquest in which Caesar claimed to have conducted thirty formal battles, captured more than eight hundred towns and fought against over three million men. Quite apart from those killed in the conquest, the numbers of those captured and sold as slaves was so great that the markets of Rome and Italy were glutted. The immensity of his achievement could not be ignored by any Roman, or indeed anyone living in the Mediterranean world. He was the first of all the kings, conquerors and generals, who for millennia had campaigned around the Inland Sea, to bring Mediterranean civilization and northern Europe into close contact. In doing so he transformed the Roman empire as well as the Gallic world, and ensured that the empire of the future would be a very different thing from that of the past. Pompey’s conquests had been among the old and known: Greece, Asia Minor and the Near East, whose cultures long predated that of Rome. Caesar by bringing in this fresh blood from the north changed the whole of Roman (as well as European) history, and at the same time secured from the conquered territories a fresh infusion of manpower which would enable him to challenge for the leadership of the Roman world. He had well assessed the fighting capabilities of the Gauls and saw that, with the addition of Roman discipline and technology, they would make magnificent soldiers. The Gaul grew up believing that the right and proper life for a man was warfare: agriculture was for the conquered, for slaves, and women. Caesar would give him all the warfare he wanted, only instead of fighting against rival Gallic tribes he would now fight Caesar’s battles—against other Romans if need be.

At the close of 51, after sending the legions into winter quarters, Caesar made a tour of the old province, Narbonese Gaul, rewarding all those in positions of authority for their steadfastness throughout the tumultuous years that had passed. Once again he was unable to visit Rome because of his proconsular status, but in any case, so much needed to be done in setting up the administration and organization of the new Gaul. He remained in the position of being able to reward his supporters in Rome and buy his way into the good graces of a great many senators and men of influence, including such unlikely diehards of the right as Cicero. As part of his propaganda campaign, 51 saw the publication of his seven volumes on the Gallic war. As well as slaves, gold from the captured temples and towns of Gaul flooded Rome, to such an extent that even the money market was upset. In his summing up of Caesar’s character, and after giving earlier instances of his financial malpractices in Spain, Suetonius makes the classic understatement: “he was not very honest in money matters.” The financial aftermath of the Gallic campaigns is stated as follows:

He plundered large and small temples in Gaul of their votive offerings, and very often allowed his troops to plunder towns not because they had offended him but just because they were rich. In the end he collected a great deal more gold than he could possibly handle and even began selling it in Italy for silver at 750 denarii to the pound—about two-thirds the official rate.

At the same time, absent in Gaul though he was, he knew from his correspondents that Pompey was making every possible use of his consulship to strengthen his position in Rome, Italy and the empire. Caesar well understood that the military gains in Gaul must now be consolidated by political and administrative foundations.

Without reference to Rome and the senate, entirely on his own authority, he proceeded to give Gaul its constitution. In doing this he could justifiably say that he was doing no more than Pompey had done in the East (something which Caesar when consul had hastened to ratify). From his headquarters at Nemetocenna (Arras), convenient for Belgic territory, he spelled out the relationship between Rome and the various states of the new Gaul, in which each individual nation or tribe was to keep its own name, laws and boundaries. Some, like the Aedui, Lingones and Remi, were recognized as equal allies of Rome, the others had their tribute assessed at 10 million denarii. This in itself was a comparatively small sum, and can only be explained by the fact that the country had been so devastated by the long years of war, and deprived at the same time of its means of production, that this was the highest figure at which the tribute could be fixed. The almost incalculable loot in men, money, specie, minerals and
materiel
which had flowed through the conquerors’ hands in recent years had in themselves comprised several years of advance tribute. The manpower of Gaul, trained to fight alongside his legionaries and owing their allegiance not to some abstract state, city or senate, but to Caesar, would—for him—make up the balance. In his dispensations he was courteous and clement and at the same time careful to see that the reins of government in the various states were in hands that had been well paid to hold them in the way he wanted. That they kept their own identities, boundaries and laws was to his advantage, since he had no wish to see any kind of unified Gaul grow up which some future Vercingetorix could turn against the Romans. As for their religion, let them keep that too. In many ways it seemed that their gods more or less equated with those familiar in the Mediterranean world, and the High Priest of Rome had never been particularly dogmatic on religious matters.

The day was fast approaching when Caesar’s proconsulship would come to an end. It was convincingly argued in the senate that, now that the Gallic War was over, Caesar was no longer needed as general and proconsul, but must take his place as a private citizen if he wished to campaign for the consulship of 49. Pompey was fully aware that, while Caesar remained in Gaul and he was in power in Rome, he must do all he could (as evasively as possible, for he had no wish at this moment for an open break with his former ally) to see that his colleague was undermined politically. A bill was brought in, for instance, which authorized any Roman citizen to institute proceedings against any holder of public office since the year 70 who had been guilty of illegal intrigue or public corruption. Both the date and the wording of this bill held Caesar within its net, for it was open knowledge that bribery and corruption had been synonymous with his consulship. (But what candidate for high office in Rome did not use money to secure his object?) Caesar knew that the bill was aimed at him, and that Pompey without openly declaring his enmity had made his peace with Caesar’s enemies. At just about this time he was able to send word back to Rome that Alesia had fallen and that the Gallic revolt was over—a triumph, in fact. An uneasy senate could do no more than decree twenty days of thanksgiving celebrations, pleasing to the people but odious to his enemies.